[2014-10-20] The history of money: from barter to bitcoin

[101111]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/money/11174013/The-history-of-money-from-barter-to-bitcoin.html

[BTCLuke]

That was all wrong from the start. Bartering wasn't really the beginning. Reputational credit was the start of money, which goes back to caveman days.

Imagine Ug kills a mammoth and his village of 20 or so people come to him for meat. Although they didn't have physical currency yet, they had to keep track of who got what, just like Bitcoin does now, on a decentralized ledger. "Frag got one, Barrrg got one, and Yann got one, but Yann give me berries today so we call it even." That's a primitive ledger, which tracks barter as well. Bitcoin and Ug both used the most efficient currency, and everything inbetween was just a 'fix' for the problem where it is hard to keep up with everyone's reputation.

Anyway, looks like the article was made by someone who was pushing something called the bartercard... Sigh.

[botany]

I really liked this chart.


But yes, the article pushes bartercard, as equivalents to bitcoin and apple pay.